DUBAI: Pakistani Prime Minister’s invitation to visit the United States and meet President Donald Trump was arranged through direct assistance from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, two senior officials said on Saturday.
Khan will arrive in Washington today, Saturday, ahead of a meeting with Trump that Pakistan hopes will help restore trust and attract much-needed foreign investment.
When asked if Prince Salman had played an “instrumental role” in paving the way for the Khan-Trump meeting, a senior Pakistani foreign office official said “absolutely.” He declined to give further details and requested anonymity as he is not the official spokesman of the foreign ministry.
A senior member of Khan’s cabinet also confirmed the role of the crown prince in setting up the meeting, saying he had used his personal friendship with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to help arrange the meeting.
Kushner’s friendship and support for Prince Salman has been one of the most important bonds that has helped draw Trump into an embrace of Saudi Arabia as one of his most important international allies. Now the friendship seems to have come in handy for Pakistan, a longtime Saudi ally itself.
The now jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was the last Pakistani head of state to visit the US in October 2015. Since then, relations have soured and last year, Trump cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in security aid to Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of offering “nothing but lies and deceit” while giving safe haven to terrorists, a charge Pakistan vehemently rejected.
In February this year, however, Trump said the US had developed a “much better” relationship with Pakistan. Recently, attempts to placate the other have been made on both sides, with Pakistan arresting the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Hafiz Saeed, who has for years had a $10 million US bounty on his head. The US also recently added the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army to its list of terror groups, honoring a long-time request by Islamabad which has been fighting the group in the southwestern Balochistan province for decades.
On Saturday, Khan will lead a high-level delegation to Washington, which includes ministers of his cabinet, commerce adviser, financial advisers, the foreign minister and in a first, the country’s powerful army chief, head of intelligence, and military spokesperson.
“The purpose of Khan’s visit is to take Pak-America relations out of the cold storage (they) have been in and request the US to reimburse the owed $800 million Coalition Support Fund to Pakistan,” defense analyst retired Air Marshall Abid Rao told Arab News.
He said Khan would emphasize that Pakistan was not interested in aid but would rather like to “develop trade with the US which mutually benefits and serves each other’s interests, an economic partnership.”
“This meeting and its conclusion is very important for Pakistan’s image internationally and for the US,” Rao said. “Today, Iran is a threat, the Gulf oil flow is under threat... and the US is trying to pullout from Afghanistan...Pakistan has solutions and suggestions.”
Defense expert Group Captain Sultan Hali, said that Khan would set the record straight during his meeting with Trump, especially on the core issue of Afghanistan. With a powerful delegation accompanying Khan, decisions, suggestions, and agreements would be made “right then and there without seeking approvals from back home.”
“He should be able to look Trump in the eye and speak without worrying,” Hali said, stressing that Khan must build his “personal reputation with Trump.”
The Prime Minister will also meet prominent members of the US Congress, corporate leaders and opinion-makers as well as members of the Pakistani diaspora in Washington. He is also scheduled to address over 19,000 overseas Pakistanis at the Capital One Arena in Washington DC on Sunday.
Khan-Trump meeting arranged through Saudi crown prince: Pakistani officials
Khan-Trump meeting arranged through Saudi crown prince: Pakistani officials
- Crown Prince used his personal friendship with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner to line up Khan’s visit
- In a first, the PM’s high-level delegation includes the country’s army and spy chiefs and military spokesman
Tens of thousands flee northwest Pakistan over fears of military operation
- More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled remote Tirah region bordering Afghanistan
- Government says no military operation underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
BARA, Pakistan: More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled a remote region in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan over uncertainty of a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban, residents and officials said Tuesday.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif has denied the claim by residents and provincial authorities. He said no military operation was underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Speaking at a news conference in Islamabad, he said harsh weather, rather than military action, was driving the migration. His comments came weeks after residents started fleeing Tirah over fears of a possible army operation.
The exodus began a month after mosque loudspeakers urged residents to leave Tirah by Jan. 23 to avoid potential fighting. Last August, Pakistan launched a military operation against Pakistani Taliban in the Bajau r district in the northwest, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Shafi Jan, a spokesman for the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, posted on X that he held the federal government responsible for the ordeal of the displaced people, saying authorities in Islamabad were retracting their earlier position about the military operation.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Suhail Afridi, whose party is led by imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has criticized the military and said his government will not allow troops to launch a full-scale operation in Tirah.
The military says it will continue intelligence-based operations against Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Though a separate group, it has been emboldened since the Afghan
Taliban returned to power in 2021. Authorities say many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan and that hundreds of them have crossed into Tirah, often using residents as human shields when militant hideouts are raided.
Caught in the middle are the residents of Tirah, who continued arriving in Bara.
So far, local authorities have registered roughly 10,000 families — about 70,000 people — from Tirah, which has a population of around 150,000, said Talha Rafiq Alam, a local government administrator overseeing the relief effort. He said the registration deadline, originally set for Jan. 23, has been extended to Feb. 5.
He said the displaced would be able to return once the law-and-order situation improves.
Among those arriving in Bara and nearby towns was 35-year-old Zar Badshah, who said he left with his wife and four children after the authorities ordered an evacuation. He said mortar shells had exploded in villages in recent weeks, killing a woman and wounding four children in his village. “Community elders told us to leave. They instructed us to evacuate to safer places,” he said.
At a government school in Bara, hundreds of displaced lined up outside registration centers, waiting to be enrolled to receive government assistance. Many complained the process was slow.
Narendra Singh, 27, said members of the minority Sikh community also fled Tirah after food shortages worsened, exacerbated by heavy snowfall and uncertain security.
“There was a severe shortage of food items in Tirah, and that forced us to leave,” he said.
Tirah gained national attention in September, after an explosion at a compound allegedly used to store bomb-making materials killed at least 24 people. Authorities said most of the dead were militants linked to the TTP, though local leaders disputed that account, saying civilians, including women and children, were among the dead.
